


A place for a blue bird to stay

by Il_matto



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, birthday fic, it took me so long to upload this I am so sorry Tsumugi I love you, semi-character study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:55:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26086060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Il_matto/pseuds/Il_matto
Summary: Tsumugi is very honored by the attention he gets on his birthday party, but there's still some stuff only a vice-president of New Dimension can do. But of course there is a person who will always find him whether he is busy in work or is caught in reflections of his own live.
Relationships: Aoba Tsumugi/Sakasaki Natsume
Comments: 1
Kudos: 40





	A place for a blue bird to stay

"So, why would our infamous workaholic vice-president run away from his own birthday PARTY?"

Tsumugi squeaks and almost drops his laptop from his knees because he didn't expect Natsume to notice his escape so soon.

"Even on such an important day you can't set yourself free from these dirty threads of entertainment industry's NETWORK?"

"It's nothing like that," though Tsumugi can recognise playfulness behind Natsume's words, it is more comfortable for him to make everything clear. They've had enough misunderstandings in the past. "There's just a couple of forms I'd rather fill in right now, so I can spend the whole evening with you two. Sora-kun looks like he waits for it a lot... Is he up to something?"

"Who KNOWS ~ " Natsume gives him his typical smirk of an all-knowing wizard but then shrugs his shoulders in a no less his typical gesture of slightly frustrated child who doesn't like to admit his own weaknesses. "Well, I also can only GUESS. He told me it is going to be a SURPRISE. It would be rude of me to interfere with my pupil's first great MAGIC."

"Oh, is that so?"

Tsumugi feels himself honored. He moves to the very corner of the couch so Natsume can sit beside him. If he has such wish of course.

"Exactly. So you'd better be GRATEFUL. If your reaction is insensitive and offends that chILD, I won't forgive you even if it's your BIRTHDAY."

"I am still not sure that I am feeling right about having my birthday celebrated," Tsumugi smiles awkwardly and tries to concentrate on finishing his work but he knows he has already said too much. "But I honestly appreciate everyone's attention and I guess I'd better apologize to them for leaving the party so soon..."

He tries hard not to look at Natsume's face but he still feels it in the way he shifts to sit closer to him. Just a little bit, but in Natsume's case it still speaks a lot.

"Do you want to talk about IT?"

Tsumugi shakes his head. There's nothing really much to say about it that won't sound as useless complaints about his past and that period when he remembered it was the day of his birth only during his morning horoscope check. That times feels like a suffocating dream he doesn't want to see ever again. Not now when he finally knows he is living.

"SenpAI?"

Ah, there it is, that tone of Natsume's voice Tsumugi has just recently started to hear (or to finally admit that he hears it). Stop hiding your feelings. You must not show only your good ones. Just share your thoughts and we can solve it together.

Ah, yes. It's not like Natsume doesn't know the worst of him from that time, Tsumugi reminds to himself. But it's still... So ironic, isn't it? Because to Natsume he has always wanted to show only the best side.

Since that far away like a million dreams away time.

"I still lack so many things in myself," Tsumugi says finally. His fingers are still on the keyboard, glance focused on column of numbers in the file. But somehow this monotonous work right now helps him to sort out his own thoughts. "You know, every birthday is like a milestone. You can look back at your life and see how far you have gone. And the thing is... I don't know if I have changed."

Once when the world was so much simpler, Tsumugi has met a charming child with the hair of the brightest red he had ever seen. He admired that child's brilliance. He fell for that child's bright smile that has never known anything painful. Tsumugi wished he could just have something in common with that child. For example, a beautiful like a starry sky dream.

"Remember I said you once told me I should become more cool?" Tsumugi giggles, because the second part of that childish demand is still embarrassing to say it out loud.

_Like a prince from a fairly tale._

He read every book he could find since hearing those words from Natsume-chan. He tried to remember qualities he had to gain that every Prince Charming and Knight in Shining Armour had. But it's not that easy to fight dragons and rescue princesses when you can't do anything to stop your own family from falling apart. When you see dozens of smiles fading away from faces of children when their dreams were torn into pieces with the closure of their school.

When it is hard for Tsumugi to keep such a simple promise of never cutting his hair.

Maybe he is just not qualified to be a good character. Maybe he is only suited to play trees in the background of the school plays. There is nothing special about him, so maybe he can become a shining hero only on the stage build on lies and intrigues where the monsters to be defeated are no one but people who are just so much better than he can ever become.

And it was his choice to turn the brightest star of his childhood into an evil creature in the eyes of the audience.

"... I've never apologized to you properly, have I?" Tsumugi just wonders to himself mostly. He remembers promising to make up for everything he has done during the war time. He still believe he can make Natsume happy because it is what he really wants. But to say sorry for something what he sincerely believed was necessary to do... "I've hurted you so bad just because I wanted to become someone I can never beco..."

"Stop IT, SENPAI," Natsume lets out a sigh. "Are you seriously going to reflect on your crimes on the day people greet you for coming into this WORLD? I can make you do that any other day of a YEAR."

"Yeah, I know, but as I said, a milestone..."

"You can never predict what is going to change in you for SURE. Not even fortune tellers are qualified to decide other's FATE. And you... To think that you who have entered my secret room without permission two years ago will be right there at this very MOMENT. I could never predict THAT."

That's all still thanks to Natsume, wasn't it? If Natsume didn't agree to take Tsumugi's hand despite holding a grudge on him. If Natsume didn't create a unit for them and Sora that they can call their home now. If it was not Natsume...

"And once agaIN, you're thinking something unpleasant about YOURSELF," Tsumugi feels a familiar touch of Natsume's cold thin fingers as he cups his chin to make Tsumugi's head turn so their glances finally meet. Even in this room with poor lightening Natsume's eyes are bright like gold. And there's that little smile on his lips that Tsumugi adores so much now that he knows that this secret smile is kept by Natsume until the very special moments. Which means the moment they share now is really special.

"As a fortune teller I can suggest many roads to tell someone's FUTURE. As a magician I can cast on them many SPELLS," Natsume says and his voice is a honey-sweet melody. "But I can't make anyone change unless they want IT. I can't open a closed doors if they are locked from the INSIDE."

Tsumugi blinks as he kind of understands what Natsume wants to tell him. Maybe. Or maybe he just wants to listen to Natsume's voice for a little longer. Or maybe he wants Natsume to praise him more honestly than Natsume usually does. It is his birthday after all? People are allowed spoiled with something on such occasions?

And Natsume allows him to embrace these little pleasures as he goes on.

"I couldn't have helped yOU, if I saw there was nothing to help WITH. But what I saw in yOU, was a will to CHANGE. I saw your wish to do something better than what you've done BEFORE. All I gave you is a place where you can make your own dreams come TRUE. So your change is a victory of your OWN." But of course it is not Natsume if he doesn't add with a smirk: "You're still awfully slow THOUGH. But we have what we HAVE. Any OBJECTIONS?"

"Natsume-kun..."

Tsumugi has so many things to say. But they are mostly about the things Natsume has taught him even if he denies them. And so many loud and useless words of gratefulness. And... Tsumugi being himself finds only one certain thing to say.

"... It will be really bad if I kiss you right now?"

Well. It's not an objection of course, but also not something Natsume expected to hear, so Tsumugi lets out a guilty but still happy smile as he looks at way too cute blush covering Natsume's cheeks.

"It DEPENDS," Natsume finally says in an almost calm voice. "You are not that bad at kissing as one can judge by your looks..."

"You don't have to if you don't want to! It's not like I am going to take much of your time. I still have to finish this before we are called by Sora-kun..."

"I am really close to change my MIND," Natsume huffs, but only moves closer and cuts to the bare minimum the distance between them, waiting for Tsumugi to finally close it. He is still so no good that Natsume has to wait for him.

At least this time it won't take him too long.

Tsumugi cups Natsume's face gently as something precious and fragile and lays a soft almost shy kiss on his lips. They are warm and they taste like a cherry lipstick. Tsumugi once said randomly that this one was his favorite and now he feels so endeared. It's very Natsume way to give him a little secret present. Tsumugi promises himself he will learn to find these little charms even better.

Once upon a time he fell for a beautiful girl who turned out to be an even more charming young man. And maybe if Tsumugi was kissed by a princess his misfortunes would be cast away and he had a chance to become someone better and someone perfect. Like a prince from a fairy tale.

But every time he kisses Natsume (and especially every time Natsume kisses him) it feels like another spell that makes their connection grow stronger, so nothing can tear this thread apart.

And in moments like this Tsumugi understands that this is the place his long messy road of fate led him to. So this journey was worth it.

He will keep on casting magic of happiness he has learnt because it somehow looks like a perfect role for a blue bird magician he found out himself to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy VERY belated birthday to Tsumugi... I published this fic on Twitter on his birthday but life caught me in its stream so I am only publishing it here now... I've also been worrying that I am hurrying up these two and that they are not on this level of their relationship to talk about their feelings properly, but the Next Door event happened, and... Thank you Akira for blessing us and our blue bird birthday boy in your own way.
> 
> And thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed this little contribute of mine <3


End file.
